The present invention relates to a light, and more particularly, to a light which may be attached to a crib or to a vertical wall surface.
Prior art crib lights are known which may be mounted to an upper rail of a crib. Such crib lights typically include some sort of clamping structure for removably attaching the crib light to the crib.
In one known crib light, the light includes a box-shaped housing which may be positioned against the vertical rails of the crib and a clamping plate is provided on an opposite side of the vertical rails with a screw passing through the clamping plate and into the housing to clamp the light in a vertical position. Such a clamping arrangement suffers from the disadvantage that any force applied to the light housing may dislodge the light such that the light could slide up or down along the rails.
In another prior art crib light, a horizontally extending support member is permanently affixed to the light housing for engaging the top surface of a crib rail to prevent the light from sliding downwardly. In addition, a spring loaded finger may be provided for engaging the crib rails on the opposite side from the light housing, or a screw tightenable clamping member may be provided for engaging the railing to thereby limit pivotal movement of the light housing relative to the horizontal support and the top rail. Such a light is limited in the environments in which it may be used since, in order to be mounted properly, it must be used in combination with the top rail of a crib.
Prior art crib lights also suffer from the disadvantage of having a light which does not permit adjustment of the brightness of the light emitted therefrom. Thus, turning the light on may result in waking a baby sleeping in a crib, contrary to the intended purpose of the light to provide only enough light to view a child in a crib without waking the child.
Accordingly, there is a need for a crib light which may be mounted adjacent to the top horizontal rail of a crib and which includes a clamping structure for immovably holding the light against movement relative to the rail. In addition, there is a need for such an immovably mounted light which may be also mounted to a vertical wall surface, such as may be required when the light is mounted adjacent to a changing table.
There is also a need for a crib light in which the brightness of the light emitted may be adjusted to avoid waking a child lying beneath the light or to provide sufficient light for performing tasks within a crib without the light hurting the child's eyes.